UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN THE EARTH SCIENCES: SOME THINGS WE MAY ALREADY BE DOING, BUT CAN CONSCIOUSLY DO BETTER AND FURTHER EXPAND OUR SKILLS

Achieving equal access for students with disabilities to courses in postsecondary education is an ongoing challenge, particularly in the sciences. The faculty and student assistants forming the Department of Earth Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are actively seeking better ways to include persons of many diverse backgrounds. In doing so, we are improving teaching strategies to foster the scientific growth of all of our adult students. Our department has partnered both informally, and now more formally, with the UALR Disabilities Support Services (DSS) staff through a grant supporting “Universal Design,” recently awarded to DSS by the U.S. Department of Education. Our collaboration has helped us gain both focus and momentum due to the pooling of our collective content and support expertise. This assists the Earth Science faculty with our shared long term goal of improving representation of persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented populations, in the U. S. geosciences community.

We interact with students without disabilities and with learning, vision, hearing, and physical mobility disabilities in our core non majors courses, as well as enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s level programs. Presentation of geosciences information through interlacing activities using tactile and graphical “visualizations,” as well as supplementing with sound and sub-captioning, are the tip of the iceberg for effective Universal Design pedagogical means to engage students with and without disabilities. Therefore, such “accommodations” can be better addressed and are really “universal designs” appropriate for the broader learning audience. Several simple and relatively inexpensive universal methods can be incorporated into curricular activities and will be addressed. Another important technique is to introduce concepts in the field. Experiential learning is invaluable to most learners. Establishing a student “cohort” early in a course through fieldtrips or guided team activities provides establishment of a peer-support group that can access concrete experiences to form concept connections, and begin to develop confidence with regard to science learning and applications.